COLCOA and Variety Fete French Talent in Los Angeles

COLCOA, the City of Light, City of Angels festival, joined forces with Variety to celebrate the French film industry, including one of its leading filmmakers, the Oscar-winning helmer Michel Hazanavicius.

The cocktail party, which took place on Thursday evening at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles, gathered Hazanavicius, Pierre Niney (“An Ideal Man”), Yann Gozlan (“An Ideal Man”), Anne Fontaine (“Gemma Bovery”), Sabrina Van Tassel (“Silenced Walls”) and Shirel Amitay (“Atlit”). High-profile figures such as Pascal Rogard from SACD (the society of authors, composers, directors), Mathieu Bejot from the promo org TV France International and Florence Gastaud from ARP (the guild of authors, directors and producers) also made the trip from Paris.

Spearheaded by its artistic director Francois Truffart, COLCOA hosted the Variety-sponsored cocktail party before the premiere of “The Search” (pictured above) — the latest film from Hazanavicius that competed at Cannes last year and stars Berenice Bejo as an NGO worker on a mission to save a boy in war-torn Chechnya.

Turning 20 next year, COLCOA is organized by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, which itself stems from a collaboration between the authors, composers and publishers guild (SACEM) and the DGA, MPA and WGAW.

This year has marked a milestone for COLCOA since it opened up to TV drama and films, as well as expanded its program to nine days.

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